Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) Issue 
ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Oct 01, 2007 10:42pm
Logged 0
CategoryNews
MediaNewspaper - New York Times
News DateWednesday, October 3, 2007 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionBy ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: October 2, 2007

The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.

Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates.

Now the six-month dark season has returned to the North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished by the summer’s changes, scientists are studying the forces that exposed one million square miles of open water — six Californias — beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979.

At a recent gathering of sea-ice experts at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Hajo Eicken, a geophysicist, summarized it this way: “Our stock in trade seems to be going away.”

Scientists are also unnerved by the summer’s implications for the future, and their ability to predict it.
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION